I just got my 11 gal pot so im close to my first AG (hopefully in week!).

I gotta build my wort chiller next, HD only sells 3/8th copper in 20' coils, IS that long enough for five gallons in my 11 gal pot. Will i be kicking myself if i dont go for the longer coil or the 1/2". I am trying to get going AG under 100 dollars so the 20' looks good, but i dont want to regret it in the future and go ahead buy more. It will be fine for me as long as it cools the wrot without the sink or snow and in a decent amount of time, anything under 30 mins should be good.

Ive searched this board and all over the internet to find good dimensions and cant find anything these are my questions:

1) coils close together or spread apart?
2) Propper height ( i assume since cold water is denser, and therfore sinks, the coils so be closer to the top of the wort, or should it be spread evenly throughout)

Heres my project so far for AG
11gal turkey fryer with burner -$39
Imersion chiller- not yet
48qt cooler MAsh tun- dont have but priced out at walrmart for $17 (Goin to do a stopper with tube through instead of bulkhead for now)

I put together my CFC for under 60 bucks, I would try and shop around for a better deal on copper. I actually found a pretty good deal at a mom & pop hardware store. I had to buy 50 foot of copper but I got it for $51 and I sold 25 feet to a friend for $25. I think that lowes wanted like $75 dollars or something like that. You could always buy more at a better price & sell it on ebay or to someone else looking at making one too. But I would definatly go with more than 20 feet, I think that you will kick yourself in the a$$ later on if you don't.

20 feet would work but I like at least 25-30 feet better. I'd recommend putting a little space between the coils. The one advantage to 1/2" is that it holds its shape a little easier, the downside is that it's harder to bend anywhere near 90 degrees.

You're going to want to stir your wort while cooling or at least get it swirling once or twice during cooling so the tendancy for cooler wort to sink is a moot issue. If you have your wort whirlpooling even the slightest bit, your cooling time will be halved.

I also have the 11 gal pot, and a 20 ft wort chiller which works fine with 5 gal of wort left after the boil...

It only takes around 10 minutes to cool it down to the 70's (with outside temps around 30, might take longer in the summer, dunno yet). I usually stand there and shake the chiller up and down to keep the wort circulating....

thanks for the Advice. I spent almost an hour a HD staring at the 20' coil and teh 50' coil debating back and forth and back and forth, but in the interest of my wallet i went with the coil. I figure i can use it as a prechiller way down the road if i move to 10g batches.

One more question though:

Is the standard vinyl tubing able to withstand the heat without melting? i bought some for the in tube but not sure if it would melt on the way out. or do i need something else.

The thinwall stuff will work but the output side will crush a little from the vaccum created from the outflow. You could get a short piece of the braid reinforced viny hose for the outflow side. It's much thicker walled.